General Chat

Libby, I would "If I were You" ask them to confirm in Writing all they told you on the phone,Then you have proof from them in case there has been a mistake.**M**.

Just come off the phone re daughters ESA, two 30 minute calls. Both calls confirmed that she IS entitled to both cheques and to bank the second one, further payments will be made direct to her bank account.

All of my calls and questions have been logged and there is no need to confirm in writing. Apparently, if they have made an error it will not be necessary for daughter to pay it back, it will be written off. WHAT? :-0 :-0.

This is the third time I have been told this and find it unbelievable.

Apparently her claim is contribution based. Find this difficult to understand because she has never earned enough to pay NI, also I find it very wrong.

Daughter says charity begins at home and is giveing me the proceeds of the second cheque towards Christmas :-D

Does she have a seperate saving account you/she can pay the cheques into?

That way she can earn a bit of interest while its being sorted out, without the temptation to spend it ;-)

I suggest putting all the above in writing to the Department who issued the cheque asking for confirmation, IN WRITING, that she is entitled to this money under the above circumstances. Please make sure you keep a copy of the letter you send for future reference.
If/when you get written confirmation that it is her money you will be able to prove that you queried it at the time, before she spent it. Don't know if that will make any difference to her having to pay it back, but you will be able to argue that it was their fault as you had queried it.

In June 2011 my 17 year old daughter had to give up college because of her ADHD and was suffering with depression. She was in a pretty bad way and was told she should claim ESA because at the time she was unemployable. This was all sorted.

Since then she has come on a long way with a lot of help and support and went back to college in September this year. Her sick note ran out at the end of August and payments stopped. Sorted.

On Friday she received a letter telling her that her claim has been reviewed and she has been placed in the support group, back dated to July last year. They also enclosed two cheques, both pretty large amounts. One was for back dated payments from July last year until the end of August this year .... this one I think she is entitled to.

The second one was for payments from September this year, to date. This one I don't think she is entitled to, apart from a very small amount, probable 4 or 5 days worth. She attends college on 3 full days a week for her main course plus she is doing her English "A" level on 2 half days, this one she may have to give up because I think she has bitten off more than she can chew.

I am currently haveing problems finding out about her entitlement to the second cheque and have made numerous phone calls to try and find out. Keep getting pushed from pillar to post and no-one seems to be able to give me a straight answer.

The last thing I want is my daughter spendng this money and them asking for it back if they have made an error :-0 :-0